The PGA Tour heads to Las Vegas this week for the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, the latest event in the FedEx Cup. The tournament hasn’t had the best of scheduling given that there is a huge tournament in Europe and the latest WGC event was played on the other side of the world last week but despite that we should get a competitive tournament.
Rod Pampling is the defending champion this week having won the tournament last year and he returns to try and retain his title.
Recent Winners
2016 – Rod Pampling
2015 – Smylie Kaufman
2014 – Ben Martin
2013 – Webb Simpson
2012 – Ryan Moore
2011 – Kevin Na
2010 – Jonathan Byrd
2009 – Martin Laird
2008 – Marc Turnesa
2007 – George McNeill
The Course
TPC Summerlin remains the stop for this tournament. The par for the course is 71 and it measures 7,255 yards. Given that we are in the desert the ball flies further in the humid air so it doesn’t play to that full yardage.
Generally speaking this course is among the hardest on tour to find the fairways and one of the toughest to get up and down on so hitting the fairways and the greens is essential. Given that this is a low scoring event a hot putter is a necessity as well.
The Field
Given everything else that is going on and went on last week this is not the strongest field known to man but the usual benefits are up for grabs on the event.
Former champions Smylie Kaufman, Kevin Na, Webb Simpson and Martin Laird are all in the field this week as are Las Vegas natives Charley Hoffman, Scott Piercy and Ryan Moore. Bubba Watson, Tony Finau and Patrick Cantlay add a better flavour to the field.
Market Leaders
Tony Finau is the favourite to win the tournament this week. Big hitters have an advantage around this course but as with the previous times he has been favourite for a golf tournament I question whether he is ready for that pressure. This isn’t the strongest field though so there might be some mileage in his 16/1 price.
Webb Simpson is the leading money earner in this tournament and at 18/1 he will be popular off the back of that. He arrives in decent form too so with form and course experience he ticks a number of boxes. You take a hot putter on trust rather than confidence however.
Patrick Cantlay will seriously break through at some point this season but whether that will be this week I’m not sure. To my eyes he is the leading player in the field though and 20/1 could well be considered a big price to land the event if the excursions of Asia have not caught up with him.
Chesson Hadley is the form horse in the field but he has played an awful lot of golf in recent times and that is a concern. That said if he has one more decent week left in him then 25/1 is a very acceptable price. It is 33/1 bar those named.
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Main Bets
I’ll go with a couple of bets this week. With the wind said to be up at times I’m looking for players who are good in the wind and who are excellent putters in particular.
The first person to fill that profile is Anirban Lahiri. We might not have seen it regularly on the PGA Tour just yet but the Indian is one of the best putters in the game and he has shown on a number of occasions that he is handy in the wind. Now that he has had a year or two on the PGA Tour I’m really expecting big things of Lahiri this year and if he keeps the ball in play off the tee I don’t think he’ll be far away.
Jamie Lovemark is a player I was on earlier in the season and I think this course suits him too. He is very solid from tee to green as we saw in the CJ Cup recently. He had a good tournament here a couple of years ago and is a much better player arriving this week than he was then. As I said earlier in the season I believe it is only a matter of time before he wins and this week could well be the one.
Outsiders
I’ll go with two outsiders this week too. The first of them is a man who will be eager to win his home tournament in Scott Piercy. Piercy is a long hitter who has a decent record in this tournament. He goes into the week in the top in strokes gained putting this season. That form combines with a hot putter should see the bomber right in the mix this week.
I took Hunter Mahan last week and at one point on Sunday I thought I was going to get rewarded but had no joy down the back nine on the final day. That said I’m convinced I’m onto something with his return to form and in a field near enough as weak last week I think he is worth chancing again. He has good desert form from the Phoenix Open and the WGC Matchplay and if this does turn into a putting contest he won’t be found wanting. I’ll go with him again here.
Tips
Back A.Lahiri to win Shriners Hospitals for Children Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Coral (1/5 1-7)
Back him here:
Back J.Lovemark to win Shriners Hospitals for Children Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Paddy Power (1/5 1-7)
Back S.Piercy to win Shriners Hospitals for Children Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 67.00 with Paddy Power (1/5 1-7)
Back H.Mahan to win Shriners Hospitals for Children Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 101.00 with Paddy Power (1/5 1-7)
Back them here:
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